


The Universe’s Guide to Falling in Love

by TheQueen



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alt!Shiro, Alternate Universe, Canon Compliant, Except it's sven, Friendsheith, Hardened Soldier Lance, How Do I Tag, M/M, Pre-Canon, svance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-30 01:59:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12643836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueen/pseuds/TheQueen
Summary: Sven always knew love would kill him.Or the story of why Sven jumped in front of that bullet.





	1. Chapter 1

Sven meets him for the first time in the aftermath of a planet wide evacuation.

You got used to fleeing when you live the lives they did. Humanity had always been at the center of the resistance, had always held it’s ground against the ever growing Altean forces. The Alteans’ doctrine of true peace forever at odds with humanity’s desire for true freedom. Freedom, of course, at the cost of all else. Freedom at the cost of their only home.

What is Earth when the prize is one more day to fight?

And so Humanity moves, takes to fleets in the sky, docking on allied planets and losing hundreds as the war wages on and on. Freedom at the cost of all else.

Sven is on one of the last ships out, huddled in the back of the cruiser with Keith curled up against his side. Their baby yupper, Joan of Yup, scampering up and down the rows of fellow refugees, jumping around the legs of the fighter soldiers who were busy handing out rations and blankets.

That’s when Sven sees him. Tall and wrapped in the teal blue of a rebel fighter, hair pulled back in a ponytail, and cheeks smudged with ash. He’s limping. It’s the first thing Sven really notices, the slight misstep in his gait as he crosses the room to offer a blanket first to Keith and then to Sven. “It’s going to be alright now,” he offers. He has a beautiful smile, big and a little goofy.

Sven takes the blanket and opens his mouth to say thank you when Keith snorts, loud and brittle. His face is pinched together, teeth bared, eyebrows furrowed and Sven braces himself. “Yeah. And you know that how?”

The soldier’s smile wavers for a second and Sven watches him collect himself. “You’re right. I don’t know. But,” He stands and smiles. He’s favoring his left side. “There’s no danger in hope.”

“Hope,” Keith snaps, “is useless.”

“Hope,” the soldier corrects, “keeps us alive.”

.

It sticks with Sven long after they’ve dock, long after they’ve found a home amongst the many hollow apartments on their new refugee planet. A planet hosting hundreds and thousands of humans packed together in cardboard rooms no larger than his once-living room. Keith doesn’t bother to complain, only commenting that he is grateful for the plumbing. Sven does his best to keep his homesickness to himself.

It sticks with him long after he has managed to scratch out a meager living working as a barkeep on a lower level tavern selling a variety of human and non-human substances. Working longer and longer hours as they wait for their asylum statues to be approved in hopes of receiving a little aid or health insurance.

It sticks with him when he passes the recruiting desks. The soldiers calling out promises of free lodging and food and health care followed by rousing speeches about freedom and perseverance and protection. A reminder of why they gave up their home.

Hope… a necessity for survival, a reason to get out of bed, a reason to get up. It makes sense the longer Sven thinks about it. Hope has been the fuel Humanity has sustained itself on since it made the mistake of reaching out to the stars. And now it is here helping him put one foot in front of the other.

He often wonders if he should sign, pledge his soul and body to a cause he does believe in. Perhaps if he were a braver man… Perhaps if he did not have Keith to worry for…

And then one day Keith comes home with a badge and a blaster.

.

They argue. Their voices rising until their neighbors are banging on the walls telling them to shut up. Sven loses his temper and tells them to mind their business. Keith runs out the door before they can discuss things rationally. Forever running away from his problems, Sven thinks bitterly.

But still… he’ll be back…

Sven sits down to wait. Clenches his hands together and finds his leg jiggling up and down until he can’t sit still, can’t wait. He stands fast enough to throw his chair on the floor. He needs something to do. He needs to not think. He considers going for a run but he needs to be here when Keith comes back, needs to talk him out of this stupid, crazy idea.

Signing up to be a soldier? To go die in space?

Who cares if it’s for a cause they believe in? Who cares when it means Keith will die? Freedom at the cost of anything but Keith. Not Keith. Not the last family he had.

He keeps himself busy with cleaning the house. Better to clean than to break. And if his hands shake as he does the dishes then there's no one there to watch him. 

When he’s done washing the kitchen and the bathroom and the living room and the bedrooms, doing dishes and sweeping and vacuuming and scrubbing every surface he can get his hands on, he does it again. And again.

Joan makes herself scarce, huddles under the bed until Sven is done.

The apartment smells like bleach and lemon when Keith comes back, sweat drenched. He’d gone on a run. For a moment neither say a word and then, “Don’t dirty the floors,” Sven mumbles.

When Keith throws his clothes in the wash and steps into the shower, Sven does the laundry again.

.

“I’m doing this for you,” Keith swears that night when they lie in bed, half asleep. Their apartment had only been big enough for one bedroom and with it only one bed. But that is fine. They’ve been having sleepovers since they were 7 and 10 respectively. Joan snores from her place by the foot of the bed. “I’ll make sure you can go back home, back to Earth.”

“It won’t matter if you’re dead,” Sven whispers. “I’d rather lose Earth a million times than you.”

“You won’t have to,” Keith promises, “I’m not leaving you.”

.

The army drags Keith away for training. He visits when he can. Every weekend.

Sven keeps himself busy. Work. Work. Work. The apartment is too clean. Their neighbor jokes he should clean theirs. He considers it.

_ Hope _ , he remembers.  _ Hope. Hope. Hope. _

.

And then one day Keith brings his squad home.

It seems only fitting for the universe to play this sort of joke, Sven supposes. After everything else it makes sense for Keith’s squad leader to be the limping, smiling soldier.

“Lance,” he introduces, moving his cane into his left hand for a handshake. “I didn’t get your name last time.”

“Sven,” Sven whispers. He’s blushing. It’s mortifying. He holds Lance’s hand a little too tight and drops it a little too quickly to be anything but embarrassing. Keith watches him with wide, horrified eyes.

“You have a wonderful home,” Lance compliments, removing his shoes at the door without prompting. Kind of him to ignore the flustered mess Sven is becoming. “And dinner smells delicious.”

The other squad members, a short haired olkari girl named Katie and a larger dark-skinned Balmera man named Hunk follow Lance’s lead into the dining area. “I’m starving,” Katie jokes. “Keith says you’re the best cook on the planet.”

“If it’s anything like the lunches Keith refuses to share on Monday then I’m sure it will be amazing,” Hunk smiles as he takes his seat.

“I used to be a chef,” Sven admits carefully, passing out plates. “So hopefully it lives up to standards.”

“I know it will,” Lance reassures. When he takes the plate from Sven, he smiles just like he did on the carrier all those months ago, big, beautiful, and just a little goofy.

Sven wonders if he’s in love.

.

“Oh my god,” Keith groans once Lance and the others have left with promises to visit again and Sven starts to busy himself picking up the dishes. Keith’s blaster sits casually on the table. “Just ask him out, please.”

Sven ignores the burning in his cheeks, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

.

Keith’s team becomes a constant after that, slipping in and out of their home as easy as breathing. Sometimes even staying the night piled together in their living room so Sven has to walk around random limbs and throw pillows on his way to the kitchen to make breakfast for a group of hung over revolutionary fighters.

The first time they call him Team Mom it’s an accident. Keith is asleep, curled up in his chair at the table while the others have taken their seat. Katie is still a little drunk but edging towards sobriety as she nurses a cup of Olkari Coffee (the closest Sven can find to real Coffee), her eyes closed against the sun. When he places a plate of scrambled eggs on the table as a little pick me up, she sighs, “Three cheers for Team Mom.”

Without missing a beat, Hunk and Lance echo it from their own places around the table while Keith laughs.

“Um…” Sven blushes and scratches at his chin, “Thank you?”

Keith pulls him for a loose armed hug, grinning in a way Sven hasn’t seen since before he lost his parents to the war, “Figures it’d slip eventually.”

Lance stands and bumps shoulders with him on his way to get another cup of coffee, “Welcome to the team, Sven.”

.

After that Sven stops thinking of them as Keith’s and more as his. His revolutionary soldiers. His team. His family. 

.

And then the war takes them away. 

Of course it does. It’s what they’ve been training for: war, battle, bloodshed. He holds Keith tight that night. Joins them all curled up on the floor so Hunk is warm against his back and Keith is tight against his chest. In the wee hours of the morning with the dim blue light just starting to illuminate the room, he wakes to find Lance staring at him.

“Keep him safe,” Sven begs softly, “I don’t think I’ll make it if he dies.”

“I’ll do my best,” Lance promises. His voice is strong, steel. Sven thinks of his limp and wonders what he’s seen. 

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

.

The assignment lasts a week. Sven tries to pretend they’re  just away at training. And then he tries to pretend he’s not worried. And then he tries to pretend he knows they’ll be okay.

But mostly he does his best to keep himself busy. 

.

The day they return, he finds himself at the army base. 

It isn’t a conscious decision. He knows they’re coming home and he knows his boss owes him a favor. It’s easy after that to wake up, pack a bag, and catch the next train to the army city Garet and from their hitch a ride on the back of a caravan to the edge of the Garrison. From there, he sits against the large steel doors and waits for them to clear his papers. 

A large Galran woman named Zethrid comes to bring him inside. She’s a general from the medals against her chest and the others salute while she passes. Sven dares to ask why she’s here. 

“Lance asked me to bring you,” She shrugs. “You know you’re not supposed to be here.”

“I need to see my t-my brother,” Sven says. He couldn’t wait until they were done debriefing. He needed to see them. He needed to see Keith. “I’m sorry if I caused any trouble.”

She laughs and it’s loud enough to make Sven flinch. “You’re a strange one Sven Taube.” 

They come to a room made of glass and Sven sees the way a nurse presses down the corners of a hospital bed and feels his heart drop. “Is anyone hurt?”

General Zethrid shrugs, large shoulders moving the padding of her space suit. “We’re fighting a losing war, Sven Taube. I imagine someone is always hurt.”

Sven chuckles weakly, “That doesn’t make me feel better.”

She laughs as they arrive upon a door marked infirmary and she hands him off quickly to a pair of nurses. “I don’t suppose it was meant to.”

.

The only one standing is Keith. 

It shouldn’t fill him with so much relief. Right afterwards, he feels guilty for being relieved that it isn’t his Keith in one of those hospital but rather his team. “How bad is it?” Sven asks after they stop hugging and he stops shaking and Keith has lead him to one of the hospital chairs crowded against the wall where he can see the rest of them -- Hunk, Katie, and Lance -- lying quiet and asleep in their beds. The steady sound of a heart monitor a kind of white noise in the background. 

“Not bad,” Keith reassures. “We completed the mission and it’s mostly just a mixture of dehydration, exhaustion, and mild burns.”

“Something exploded?” Sven asks. 

Keith shrugs, “Something exploded.”

There is a brief, tense moment of silence where Sven stares down at his boots and Keith leans against him. “We’re leaving soon,” Keith tells him.

Sven takes a deep breath. “How long?”

“Three days and then two weeks out.” Keith shrugs again and Sven feels the padding of his spacesuit move. “We might have found something… important.”

“Important.” Sven echoes. 

“Important,” Keith repeats and when Sven looks at him he looks apologetic. 

“At least you have three days,” Sven says and he pulls his Keith back in for a hug. “At least we have that.” 

.

They always did say the first time is the hardest.

Or

Wait….

No.

More like… they always did say things get easier with time. 

That’s better. It fits better. Time. It gets easier with time. It’s not that Sven stops worry and more he can’t keep worrying. Less that he doesn’t want to and more he’s exhausted. 

It gets easier with time. 

One mission becomes eight, becomes sixteen. Sometimes the breaks they have are so brief that Keith can’t even come home, can’t even stop in for a good night's rest and a good meal. Sometimes Katie comes or Hunk. Once Lance stops by. 

(And it’s awkward because Sven still feels his heart beat too fast when he sees him and it’s ridiculous that this hero’s crush might be turning into a real crush and he wishes Keith was here to make fun of him.) 

After the twenty fifths, Sven finds himself lost and bored on the other side of town and applying to a position of chef before he can stop himself. It’s not right cooking for an empty table. It’s not right not knowing that the food he makes will be put away in an ice box because he’s always hated eating alone and he hates it even more now. 

(He still wishes Keith had never sign up and he can’t even make himself feel bad about it.) 

At some point he gets the job. 

.

And at some point Keith comes home. 

He gets leave and it’s nice and long and lasts two months and when he comes home properly Sven grabs him by the shoulder and holds on as if he’s never going to let him go even though he has to because he has shift and god damn it Keith why did you suprise me, I could have gotten off work to stay and…

“I missed you too,” Keith laughs half way through Sven’s rant and he’s crying and they’re both crying. 

“What do you plan on doing now?” Sven asks. Two months. He’s never been happier about two months. 

“The team is thinking about taking a vacation,” Keith says and he’s fidgeting, rocking from foot to foot. “I won’t go unless you can come.”

That’s how Sven finds himself on a cruiser heading south past the city limits and farther to a space Katie’s family has owned for generations. “It’s crowded now,” she says. “After we took in more refugees my family started renting out space for humans who managed to get their papers faster than other.”

(It had taken Sven and Keith eight months instead of 8 years and he knows it’s because Keith joined the army.) 

Katie shrugs and looks out the window and then back to Hunk and Lance who are flying. “It’s still beautiful.”

It is still beautiful. Beautiful is an understatement. The property sprawls broken only be the misshapen huts and houses that are hidden half between shrubbery and bushes. Every now and then they hear voices or animals, children, as they walk on the poorly marked path up to the main house Katie’s family originated from. “It was my great great great grandmother’s,” Katie summaries, “It was meant to be a wedding present but in the end she married my great great grandfather.”

“But she got to keep the house?” Keith asks.

“We do not believe on rescinding gifts,” Katie shrugs. 

“It’s been ages since Hunk and I came out here,” Lance says. He’s walking slow and the team has slowed to match his pace. His limb was aggravated last mission according to Keith and Shiro does his best not to stare at the bandages that cover half of Lance’s face.  _ Aggravated _ . “It’s honestly one of my favorite places on the planet.”

“The kitchen is rather fantastic,” Hunk adds, winking at Sven and Sven smiles. “Maybe we can finally have that bake off we’ve been talking about.”

“Get ready to get crushed,” Keith teases. 

Katie huffs, “The smart money's on Hunk.”

“I don’t know,” Lance smiles as they round the bend and finally, finally Sven can see the small cottage that rests on the horizon. “I’m thinking we might have some competition Hunky-Hunk.”

Hunk raises an eyebrow and smirks. “Hmmm you would think that wouldn’t you.”

Lance blushes. Sven raises an eyebrow and looks to Keith who is snickering. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lance defends.

“Sure you don’t, Lancey-lance,” Hunk coos and then claps Sven hard on the shoulder. “I will see you in the kitchen, yes?”

Sven feels as if he’s missed something important. “Ah… yeah,” Sven settles. Probably some kind of reference he had to be there for. “Get ready because I won’t go easy on you.”

“Don’t get yourselves too worked up,” Lance reminds them all as Katie steps forward to unlock the door. “We are on vacation.”


	2. Author Note & Outline

Hello!

Unfortunately I will be discontinuing this story. I did really enjoy this idea and this world, but I've long since lost the passion to complete it. I apologize to anyone who was hoping for an update. I know that there isn't enough Sven content out there. That being said below is the outline for the next to chapters. It's pretty rough, but I just wanted to share where this story was going if I had completed it.

Chapter 2

  * Team plays wingman, trying to tell Sven without directly telling him that Lance is into him too. 
  * Lance and Sven share a balcony and spend a lot of nights talking to each other while watching the foreign stars.
  * Slowly, Sven's infatuation turns into love the more he gets to know Lance and how brave he is. 
  * Sven learns Lance grew up in space & not on Earth; That he was raised by aliens; That he's known Hunk since he was 10 and that he always wanted to be a soldier and visit earth one day.
  * They become really close friends and Keith jokes Sven is trying to replace him which Sven promises is humanly impossible: "I might love him, but you're family. You will always come first." 
  * When they return from their vacation, Lance asks Sven out. "There’s something good here and I don't want to let it slip away."
  * They start dating. 
  * A year passes and they’re happy. The war takes a turn in their direction.The rebellion wins back a planet. 
  * Sven goes to a party and Keith toasts “First Eros next Earth!”



Chapter 3

  * Then a mission goes wrong. Hunk & Katie are critically wounded
  * Keith is captured.
  * Lance is unharmed.
  * Sven blames Lance for Keith’s capture, but doesn’t say anything because he knows there is enough sadness already.
  * Lance can tell Sven is angry at him, but doesn't say anything because Lance blames himself as well.
  * Lance falls into a depression. 
  * Sven decides to join the war effort to try and find Keith.
  * Sven and Lance get into a fight: “I can’t lose anymore people.” “Neither can I!” 
  * They never resolve the fight and Sven joins anyway.
  * Sven is assigned to Lance's new team. One the eight mission working together, Sven makes a crucial mistake because he's distracted by non-cog Keith who is fighting as a bodyguard/keeper of the kidnapped Galran Prince Lotor. 
  * Lance tries to pull him out of the war, but Sven explodes and rants how everything is Lance’s fault and he wishes they’d never met. 
  * On another mission with a new team, Sven meets canon!lance and is awed by how young and hopefully he is (canon episode).
  * Sven takes the bullet because he knows how much he loves his Lance and is certain there is a Sven in Lance’s universe that loves Lance just as much
  * When he wakes up in the hospital, he asks for a pen and paper to write to Lance in hopes of salvaging their relationship.



The End

Best,  
Queenie

**Author's Note:**

> Gosh I've been sitting on this for ages! I'm so glad I was able to finish it. Please let me know what you think!!
> 
> And hit my up at my tumblr: TheQueen117.tumblr.com


End file.
